Play How You Work

04 June 2025

Distributed teams are the new normal.

Not every employee works in the office 5-days a week anymore.

Whether your crew is fully remote, remote-first, hybrid, or somewhere in between, the challenge is the same: building a cohesive team culture when you’re not all under one roof.

Don’t wait for that elusive “in‑person” day to roll around.

If your team collaborates daily, whether via Slack threads, Zoom calls, or shared docs, then that’s precisely where and when you should be playing together.

Why 'Play How You Work" Matters

Work and life have merged through screens and chat windows. Yet we stubbornly try to silo play into rare in-person gatherings like team off-sites, annual retreats, or the occasional happy hour.

Meanwhile, remote and hybrid teams power through daily challenges without the spontaneous laughter, creative sparks, or simple human connection that play ignites.

Play is more than a distraction. It's the vital ingredient used to build trust, prime collaboration, and fuel resilience. When employees play in the very environments where they solve problems, they:

Break down barriers. Shared laughter and low‑stakes challenges humanize teammates, making it easier to voice ideas and ask for help.
Sharpen communication. Games demand clarity, active listening, and quick feedback, just like the workplace projects you tackle.
Foster creativity. Play invites experimentation and risk‑taking, training brains to pivot and innovate under pressure.
Build shared memories. Moments of fun bind teammates into a collective story, strengthening culture even when miles apart.

Waiting for everyone to gather in an office or conference room means forfeiting these benefits all year long. Instead, inject play directly into your workflow in the platforms and rhythms you already use. When “work” and “play” occupy the same space, teams move faster, adapt more fluidly, and stay genuinely connected.

You don’t need to wait for everyone to be in the same room—or even the same time zone—to inject play into the workday. Activities don’t have to be live or synchronous to be effective. You can set a time window for completing challenges, create a shared group chat for reactions and updates, and build in creative prompts that keep people engaged and interacting. From asynchronous scavenger hunts to “bring something into work” bonding days, or even individual board game demos where teammates share their favorites and explain why they love them... There are countless ways to spark connection, regardless of schedules! The goal is a simple one: make space for shared fun in the flow of work, not in spite of it.

Games That Fit Your Workday

Code Breakers

This game brings remote employees together and encourages team bonding without putting them to sleep. It's a fast‑paced code‑breaking and riddle‑solving game where teams work together against the clock to outscore their opponents. In a virtually dominated workplace, experiences like Code Breakers are gaining ground and for good reason:

Real relationships through real collaboration. Teams practice creative thinking, decision‑making, and leadership while solving on‑the‑second challenges in a comfortable virtual space.
Applicable teamwork skills. Every player’s contribution shapes the outcome, mirroring real‑world projects where cohesion drives success.
Lasting culture impact. The enthusiasm and teamwork learned carry forward into day‑to‑day workflows meaning your crew will be begging for more meetings.

Hybrid Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger Hunts can elevate your hybrid gatherings and bridge the gap between in‑office and at‑home participants. Everyone joins the same GPS‑enabled app:

On‑site teams race through local landmarks.
Remote teammates, who cannot join in-person due to illness, childcare, any other host of reasons, can join their team on our app to play along at home.
Live chat and photo uploads keep the entire group engaged, laughing, and problem‑solving together.

Don’t Wait. If you work together, learn to play together.... right where you already collaborate.